The Double Lemon Bar
If you are familiar with the double lemon bar, you might be pinching yourself that we are sharing our secrets. The double lemon bar is the sun in the Cherbourg sky. Every baker that has graced the counter in the seven years we've been open can thank the double lemon bar for hours and hours of zesting lemons, creaming butter for shortbread, and sifting the perfect powdered-sugar snowfall. 541 S. Drexel Ave. is truly the house that the lemon bar built.
Please join our little club of dedicated citrus zesters, lemon juicers, shortbread artisans, and try your hand at the lemon bar. It's one of those recipes that you can grow old with. I have made hundreds or even thousands of pans of lemon bars, but I still enjoy making them. For all the tediousness (waiting for your butter to reach the perfect temperature, scooping seeds out of your freshly-squeezed lemon juice), you find that you reap deliciousness from what you've sewn. It's one key to understanding why we do what we do and how we're still doing it. So, without further ado, I give you the famous Cherbourg double lemon bar recipe:
Double Lemon Bar
YIELDS 12 BARS
INGREDIENTS FOR SHORTBREAD
8 oz. salted butter (at room temperature)
2/3 C. powdered sugar
2 C. Cherbourg flour
INGREDIENTS FOR LEMON FILLING
2 C. granulated sugar
4 large eggs (at room temperature)
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ C. Cherbourg flour
225 mls. of lemon juice (including zest and pulp)
STEP ONE: DIRECTIONS FOR SHORTBREAD
1. Cream butter in large bowl. Beat in powdered sugar until really smooth. Add one cup of flour at a time until combined.
a. Careful not to over-mix, batter should appear soft and light.
b. In a 9x13x2"metal baking pan, press down shortbread dough evenly.
2. Bake at 350°F in a home oven for 19-20 minutes, until edges are golden brown.
STEP TWO: DIRECTIONS FOR LEMON FILLING
1. In a medium bowl, whisk sugar and eggs until blended. Zest lemons into bowl. Add baking powder
and flour. Beat in fresh lemon juice and pulp.
2. Pour lemon filling over baked crust. Bake at 350°F in a home oven for 22 minutes or until filling is set in center and begins to get golden brown around the edges.
3. Let pan cool on wire rack and then freeze. Once frozen, cut with a metal spatula into desired size.
Sift powdered sugar on top.
